Large data centers need large numbers of system administrators to manage servers for the customers they serve. When managing large numbers of servers, a system administrator (SA) frequently needs to execute a command or pre-existing script on a large number of servers for any of a number of purposes, such as viewing diagnostic information or setting a configuration parameter. For an SA to log in to each server, copy a script to the server, execute it, and copy the results back to his workstation is a very tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone job.
Server management frameworks have been developed to ease the distribution and execution of commands and scripts, but they lack access controls or a unified user interface for dispatching commands and collecting results.